Lyonchhen reassures employment

And that the government needs time to deliver

Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay once again shared his concerns on the employment issue and reiterated on his earlier stand that the responsibility lies with the government to provide employment opportunities.

At the government’s first ‘Meet the Press’ session last Thursday, Lyonchhen said, “If a person has spent 16 years of his or her life studying and really wants to contribute to nation building by working productively and has been in search of job for past three years and is desperate, not just to serve Tsa-Wa-Sum, but to serve oneself, are at the loss, then it is our collective responsibility to take care of this person.”

One of the pledges of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government is to initiate a youth employment policy to ensure full employment to the youth. The policy also includes providing incentives or allowances to the unemployed youth. “The unemployment benefit will allow our people, in search of work, to live in dignity while they search for work,” Lyonchhen said.

The benefit, he said would not substitute employment, but will be able to provide trainings and national service programmes.

Lyonchhen said generating jobs is a possibility and that the government needs to first of all, look into the current employment scenario where there is a lot of mismatch. Employers are seeking workers, but they aren’t able to find workers, while youth seeking gainful employment cannot find a job.

Referring to the first ‘Meet the People’ programme, Lyonchhen said he is happy for being able to link few unemployed people to a few businesses who were in search of suitably qualified workers. “This is the beginning. Where there is the immediate demand for workers, we need to ensure that the demand is identified and that our unemployed youth have access to those jobs,” Lyonchhen added.

Lyonchhen believes the government would be able to provide the jobs that are necessary, but required sometime. On the question of the viability of the “Meet the People” as most are job seekers, Lyonchhen commented that while all problems cannot be resolved, however, he said it provides a platform for sharing the people’s concerns, and to provide better solutions with government assistance. He said the government will shoulder the responsibility.

Lyonchhen also highlighted on the measures to improve the unemployment scenario by supporting existing businesses to expand investments and supporting new businesses ventures.

Lyonchhen also proposed for suitable unemployed lot to be sent outside the country for work to enhance their earnings, skills and for exposure in the global work scenario that will ultimately contribute towards nation building.